This special issue is a collection of peer-reviewed contributions from the participants of the international conference “GEDYTO: Geometrical Methods in Dynamics and Topology”, which took place in Hanoi from April 18 to April 22, 2011. It consists of two survey papers and nine original research articles, covering different aspects of symplectic and contact topology (H. Geiges and J. Gonzalo Péres; V. Ginzburg, D. Hein, U. Hryniewicz, and L. Macarini; H.V. Le, P. Somberg, and J. Vanzura; D. Salamon), geometry of Hamiltonian and Lagrangian systems (A. Chenciner; C. Laurent-Gengoux and E. Miranda; J. Montaldi and M. Rodriguez-Olmos), integrable dynamical systems (M. Chaperon and J. Kai, S. Vu Ngoc and Ch. Wacheux; N.T. Zung and N.V. Minh), and meromorphic maps (D.P. An, S.D. Quang and D.D. Thai).

The conference GEDYTO was organized on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Hanoi National University of Education. It gathered more than 50 mathematicians from 10 different countries, working on dynamics, topology, and symplectic geometry, in order to exchange ideas and explore interactions among these fields. Symplectic Geometry, Topology and Dynamics have enjoyed a along and fruitful relationship since at least the seventies, the formational period of Symplectic Geometry when its language was introduced. New tools and methods (pseudoholomorphic curves, Floer cohomology, etc.), and further developments and generalizations (modern Poisson geometry, contact geometry, etc.) have turned Symplectic Geometry into one of the most influential areas of geometry, topology and analysis in the last two or three decades, with fundamental applications in dynamics and physics. This is an area where deep and unexpected connections between seemingly disparate phenomena have been discovered, resulting in a new, unifying perspective.

One of the purposes of the conference GEDYTO and of this special issue is to promote the cooperation between Vietnamese mathematicians and the international mathematical community. We want to thank Hanoi National University of Education, The National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED), the Franco-Vietnamese Cooperation Programme ForMathVietnam, and the European Science Foundation project CAST “Contact and Symplectic Topology”, for their financial support, which allowed many international participants to attend the conference. Last but not least we want to thank all the participants of the GEDYTO for making the conference such a memorable event, and all the contributors of this special issue for their hard work.

figure a

Some of the participants in Halong Bay

Barcelona, Hanoi, Toulouse, Santa Cruz, January 2013

Guest Editors